According to the Austrian business cycle theory (ABCT) the artificial lowering of interest rates by the central bank leads to a misallocation of resources because businesses undertake various capital projects that — prior to the lowering of interest rates —weren’t considered as viable. This misallocation of resources is commonly described as an economic boom.

As a rule, businessmen discover their error once the central bank — which was instrumental in the artific

We are now living in a post-ZIRP world. On Wednesday, Janet Yellen announced that the Federal Reserve will increase the target Federal Funds rate from 0.00-0.25 percent up to 0.25-0.5 percent. While Wall Street approved of the move, Ryan McMaken notes, “The fact that this is being labeled such a large change underscores just how fragile the current economic ‘recovery’ is.” Indeed, the new Fed target would itself have been unprecedentedly low if it had oc

the belief and practices, religious and/or political, which seek a comprehensive, salvationary solution for social, political, economic and personal issues. Although originally pre-Christian, the term became identified with the myth of Christ's return after a thousand years. Millenialism, which appealed to some Dissenting sects and other non-religious groups in Britain and the US, played a part in Owen

The collapse of socialism didn't deter the Marxists, who moved on to invent new rationales for their system. But David Gordon has caught up with them, and used the knife of the Austrian School to cut their theories to pieces. A masterful demonstration of philosophical technique. The book in particular addresses the arguments of the analytical Marxists: G.A. Cohen, Jon Elster, and John Roemer.

This book should come with a warning label. It is surely one of the most bracing books on politics in the history of the English language. There is more truth in these pages than most Americans are willing to face. What Mencken delivers here is probably the most scathing attack on the idea of mass rule that has ever been written.

Mencken is known as the chief heretic of the American civic religion, an

The 1960s show Beyond the Fringe included a sketch satirizing philosophy. In it, Jonathan Miller and Alan Bennett play two Oxbridge philosophers discussing the role of philosophy in everyday life. It concludes like this:

Jon: … the burden is fair and square on your shoulders to explain to me the exact relevance philosophy does have to everyday life.

Alan: Yes, I can do this quite easily. This moAuthor(s): The Open University

How have academics and managers attempted to diagnose these largely hidden aspects of business? One well-known example is provided by Trice and Beyer (1984), who concentrated on the idea of there being symbols within a business. They divided these into, first, high-level symbols, which are the more obvious ones such as company buildings and logos, and, second, low-level symbols. They suggested four categories of low-level symbols: practices, communications, physical forms and a common languag

This activity builds on, and reinforces, Activity 4, as it is also designed to illustrate how all of us unconsciously draw from our cultures in order to interpret situations. If we as individuals do this, then organisations will do the same – after all, or